The village based malaria elimination model for interrupting malaria transmission in Banmauk township, Myanmar

Abstract

Different projects engage to eliminate malaria in Myanmar; however, malaria continues to remain a significant public health problem. Therefore, a comprehensive package intervention called “the village-based malaria elimination model” was carried out in one of the malaria-affected townships, Banmauk, in upper Myanmar, during June to November 2018. It is a systemic intervention to address interrupting of malaria transmission in accordance with elimination definition (i.e <1/1000 API) by means of comprehensive malaria control activities which consists of preliminary entomology assessment and KAP survey, routine mass blood survey, assessing diagnostic accuracy of current tools, loudspeakers base health messages announcements, real-time cases reporting and notification through mobile messaging by village malaria workers. Four villages among the most malariaburdened areas were randomly selected: two villages were assigned as the intervention group and two as the control group. Each activity included in the model showed separate effective outcomes. Overall, there were significant improvements in community practice related to malaria care-seeking. In-time reporting systems through mobile messaging were feasible and, more importantly, there was an overall effect in reducing malaria morbidity. In the linear regression model, the factors demonstrated to be significant predictors of decline in malaria by intervention villages were the number of health message announcement activities (p < 0.001), real-time mobile case reporting by malaria workers (p < 0.001), ownership of nets (p < 0.001), and routine mass blood survey (p < 0.05). However, the training showed no statistically significant association (p > 0.05). The steep decline in malaria cases among the intervention villages suggested that this intervention might be effective to reduce the malaria burden among these rural locales. The National Malaria Control Program may consider implementing this standard model and provide support for its sustainability.